University of Madras

The Institution of Madras, sometimes known as Madras University, is a public state university located in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. It was founded in 1857 by an Act of the Legislative Council of India, which was then under the control of the British government, and is one of the oldest universities in India.

It is a collegiate research institution with six campuses in the city: Chepauk, Marina, Guindy, Taramani, Maduravoyal, and Chetpet. It is a member of association of Commonwealth Universities. It offers more than 230 courses through 87 academic departments of post-graduate teaching and research organised into 18 schools, which cover a wide range of subjects in areas such as sciences, social sciences, humanities, management, and medicine. It also has 121 affiliated colleges and 53 approved research institutions, among other things. Several national centres for advanced research in nanotechnology, photonics, and neurotoxicology are housed inside the university's walls. In addition, the university has three Centers for Advanced Study (CAS) in the fields of biophysics, botany, and mathematics.

Two Indian Nobel Laureates in physics, CV Raman and Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, five Indian Presidents, including A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, computer scientist and Turing Award winner Raj Reddy, and several notable mathematicians, including Srinivasa Ramanujan and Abel Prize winner S. R. Srinivasa Varadhan, are all graduates of the University of Madras.

In the first cycle of accreditation, the National Assessment and Accreditation Council awarded the institution a 'five star' rating, and in the second cycle, the council awarded the university its highest possible grade, a 'A'. The University Grants Commission has designated the University of Madras as a 'University with Potential for Excellence (UPE)', indicating that it has exceptional academic potential. Aside from that, Madras University is recognised as one of 18 institutions in India that have been designated as a 'Centre with Potential for Excellence in Particular Area (CPEPA), with an emphasis on drug development and climate change.